Digitising the Prosopography of the Roman Republic

罗马共和国的相貌学数字化

• 批准号: AH/K007211/1
• 负责人: Henrik Mouritsen
• 金额: $ 80.45万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FK007211%2F1
• 关键词: Digitising; Prosopography; Roman; Republic

The history of the Roman Republic (c. 509 to 31 BCE) was shaped by a highly competitive aristocratic elite, which oversaw Rome's remarkable transformation from middling Italian city-state to ruler of a Mediterranean empire. This project seeks to enhance our understanding of the structure and dynamics of this elite through prosopographical study of its attested individuals, including its familial composition, office-holding patterns, internal hierarchies and property and wealth. The importance of these questions has long been recognised and much basic information for the prosopography of the Roman elite has already been collated in scholarly works. However, because of the sheer scale and complexity of the material (Broughton's index lists 3,299 individuals), it has not previously been practicable to subject it to a comprehensive analysis that integrates multiple factors such as individual 'career' patterns, family continuity, cross-familial links, and connections with elite families outside the office-holding group. Now digital technology, drawing on the experience, flair and success in this area of the Department of Digital Humanities at KCL, enables us to create an open-access searchable digital database comprising all known members of the republican elite, which will open up radically new opportunities for revisiting old questions as well as asking entirely new ones that have not been considered on grounds of feasibility. To speed our work, we have permission, and the technical expertise from DDH, to build our database through a semi-automated inputting of the data in Broughton, which will then be checked, updated and expanded as required. There are two significant novelties to this project. First, the application of a more holistic approach to the Roman elite. Whereas the 'nobility', that is the holders of political office, have naturally attracted most scholarly attention, it is impossible to understand the constantly shifting nature and workings of the elite without taking into account not only the lower ranks of the senate but also the wealthy non-senators who, in the last century of the Republic, became the equestrian order, and the growing municipal elite of Italy. These groups were closely integrated socially, and for the first time the project seeks to map systematically the links of blood, marriage, origin, business or friendship, that bound them together and the movements that happened between them. Second, in contrast to most previous prosopographical work on the Roman Republic, the project will locate its findings in the wider context of sociological studies of ruling groups, and a direct comparison is envisaged with the Venetian republic with which it shared essential characteristics. The old and new issues which this database will enable us to examine include the composition, role and numerical decline of the patriciate; the extent to which status, rather than just office-holding, was hereditary; the reasons for phases of apparent dominance by particular family groups and, conversely, the disappearance of some families in some periods; the distribution and changing levels and nature of wealth among the elite; the influence on the Roman annalistic tradition of family traditions and histories. The issue with special historical impact, however, will be the extent, location and speed of integration of the local Italian elites into the elite of Rome after the Social War. Although Italian-born consuls did not appear until Augustan times, we will argue that entry to the lower senatorial levels was more rapid, and the infiltration of the political system by so many new families who had previously had no investment in the traditional republican system played a major role in destabilising that system. Our prosopographical study will thus provide a vital new perspective on the fall of the Republic and the establishment of the Principate.

罗马共和国的历史（C。公元前509年至31年）是由一个高度竞争的贵族精英，监督罗马的显着转变，从中等意大利城邦的统治者，地中海帝国。本项目旨在通过对其证明的个人进行人学研究，包括其家庭组成、任职模式、内部等级制度以及财产和财富，加强我们对这一精英的结构和动态的理解。这些问题的重要性早已被认识到，许多关于罗马精英人学的基本信息已经在学术著作中得到整理。然而，由于材料的庞大规模和复杂性（布劳顿的索引列出了3,299人），以前不可能对其进行综合分析，综合多种因素，如个人的"职业"模式，家庭连续性，跨家族联系，以及与公职集团以外的精英家庭的联系。现在，数字技术，借鉴了KCL数字人文学科部门在这一领域的经验，天赋和成功，使我们能够创建一个开放访问的可搜索数字数据库，其中包括共和党精英的所有已知成员，这将为重新审视旧问题开辟全新的机会，并提出全新的问题，这些问题尚未被考虑可行性。为了加快我们的工作，我们得到了DDH的许可和技术专长，通过在布劳顿半自动输入数据来建立我们的数据库，然后根据需要进行检查、更新和扩展。这个项目有两个重要的创新之处。第一，对罗马精英采取更全面的方法。虽然"贵族"，即政治职位的持有者，自然吸引了大多数学者的关注，但如果不考虑元老院的下层，不考虑富裕的非元老院成员（他们在共和国的最后世纪成为骑士团），不考虑意大利日益壮大的市政精英，就不可能理解精英不断变化的性质和运作方式。这些群体在社会上紧密结合，该项目首次试图系统地绘制将他们联系在一起的血缘、婚姻、出身、商业或友谊联系以及他们之间发生的流动。第二，与以往大多数关于罗马共和国的人学研究不同，该项目将把其研究结果置于对统治集团的社会学研究的更广泛背景下，并设想与威尼斯共和国进行直接比较，因为威尼斯共和国具有共同的基本特征。 这一数据库将使我们能够审查的新旧问题包括：贵族的组成、作用和人数的减少;地位而不仅仅是职位是世袭的程度;特定家族群体明显占主导地位的阶段的原因，以及相反地，某些家族在某些时期消失的原因;精英阶层财富的分配和不断变化的水平和性质;家庭传统和历史对罗马编年史传统的影响。然而，具有特殊历史影响的问题将是社会战争后意大利地方精英融入罗马精英的程度、地点和速度。虽然意大利出生的执政官直到奥古斯都时代才出现，但我们要说的是，他们进入元老院较低级别的速度更快，而且许多新家族对政治体系的渗透，在破坏传统共和制的稳定方面发挥了重要作用。因此，我们的人学研究将为共和国的垮台和元首制的建立提供一个至关重要的新视角。